Home > Sustainability & Integral Issues
Articles Indexed By Author/Speaker Name

Articles and other written resources (including reports, interviews, book and anthology excerpts, PowerPoint presentations, and presentation transcripts) with a broad focus on sustainability, or on several of the issues that together comprise the substance of sustainability, are included in this section. Other sections of the EcoIQ.com articles collection focus on individual topics.

Since many environmental and sustainability issues are highly interrelated, it is common to focus on clusters of topics. Renewable energy and energy conservation are often joined with green building and climate change. Likewise, community planning and design are often combined with transportation and air quality. Business and the economy are frequently paired with industry and manufacturing. Water supply, agriculture, and protecting nature are similarly often connected. The connections are endless, and this page is devoted to written resources that involve such relationships.

Beyond Ecomilitarism: A New Path For Environmental Activism. Presentation by Bill Shireman. We are working to change a system within which other people who are caring and concerned are operating. We need to begin to look at these individuals within businesses not as enemies who've sold out and taken the big time job with the corporation, but as catalysts, potential change agents, who are perfectly positioned to make change. Presentation Excerpt >>

Core Concepts of Sustainability Advocacy. Article by Dennis Church. Just as with democracy, we're likely to get the future that we deserve. Nobody else will save us. We must save ourselves. This follows directly from the near total dysfunctionality of our institutions and the failure of our elites to take responsibility for the general welfare of society. Perhaps, more carefully stated, the only way to return our institutions to the functionality we need is to fix them ourselves. Article >>

Full House: Reassessing The Earth's Population Carrying Capacity. Article by Lester Brown and Hall Kane. This article discusses Brown and Kane's book on carrying capacity. It projects that over the next 40 years the world will face massive grain deficits in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, and China as populations grow. Article >>

Jobs Our Parents Never Heard Of. Article by Melissa Everett. "Here's one more reason," Everett writes, "to dread the infamous party question, 'What do you do for a living?' When you're talking about a fair number of the positions connected with protecting and restoring the environment, it is not easy to answer that question because so many new environmental jobs come in such unorthodox packages." Article >>

Living Beyond Our Means. Article by Dennis Church. The idea that we humans may be growing beyond – or overshooting – the capacity of the natural resources we depend upon to sustain us has a long history. It has proven premature when previously asserted, but now appears increasingly realistic. Article >>

New Paradigm For Local Government. Article by Dennis Church. The pressure on governments at all levels to change they way they do business is growing steadily. Public confidence in governmental institutions is low. Polls show many people feel a deep anxiety about the future. People no longer take a better future for their children as an article of faith. Article >>

No Need To Go Solo To Innovate: Try Intrapreneurship. Article by Melissa Everett. Maybe it's the economy, and maybe a lot of us are feeling the pressure to perform while we're still at our peak, but lately I've been hearing a lot of people struggling with the dilemma: get a job or start a business? Both can seem soooo compelling. Both can seem sooooo risky. If you're an enterprising soul, but you're wishing for a supportive structure around you, consider a third path: creating something new within an established workplace. Article >>

Nova: World In The Balance. Interview with Lester Brown. Between now and 2050, three billion people will join the six billion-plus that already live on this planet. How will we possibly feed them? Lester Brown has been consumed by this question for decades. Interview >>

On The Future. Presentation by Huey Johnson. Johnson shares his thoughts on what life might be like in 2020. "The Bay Area in 2020 can be a disaster, or it can be a glorious, bright future. I see this as very critically hinged to environment. Much of it will be decided by priorities. We now know enough to solve the environmental problems that we face, but we have no support to do it." Presentation >>

Our Plastic Century. Article by Wallace ‘J’ Nichols. But there’s nothing convenient about our future with plastic. We have a lot of work to do to reverse this mess. There are opportunities for leadership, innovation, research, solutions, green businesses, sustainable tourism, cleanup and restoration enterprises, and as much creative passion-filled activism as we can inspire. Reigning in and reversing the century of freedom we’ve given to plastic will take an enormous wave of personal and political will. Article >>

Promise Ahead: Is Humanity Growing Up? Book excerpt by Duane Elgin. A breathtaking view of the future relevant to anyone seeking to navigate through our profoundly changing world. From an insightful and inspiring book Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanity's Future. The sequel to Elgin's bestselling 1981 classic Voluntary Simplicity. Book Excerpt >>

Recession Kids. Article by Josh Tetrick. Young people are hard hit by recession and are given a double-whammy of facing the world's mounting environmental problems. For many this can be psychologically deflating, but there are youth who are embracing Tetrick's mantra that "selflessness is profitable." They are using the latest technological innovations to solve the world's big issues. Article >>

Saving Cities, Saving Money: Toward A Sustainable San Jose. Book Chapter by John Hart. Tells the story of a ten-year process to develop a sustainability program for the City of San Jose. Covers many programs and policies, but most significantly it focuses on energy and water resources, community development, and municipal waste recycling. Using a slow but continuous process, the City moved step-by-step (both the Council and very importantly the City's top managers) to an embrace of sustainability as a policy goal. Chapter >>

Strategy For A Green Century. Interview with Huey Johnson. Responding to global climate change means thinking big. Changes in personal lifestyle are extremely important - but so are massive programs involving broad coalitions of citizens, lawmakers, and long-range planners. Johnson discusses his involvement in politics and policy, including implementation of an environmental protection program in California and the Green Century Project. Interview >>

The Work To Be Done: Making A Living While Making A Difference. Book excerpt by Melissa Everett. Making A Living guides the reader through a program for career development that stresses personal fulfillment, integrity, and contribution. Lays out a framework for dealing with the unique challenges of establishing and maintaining a value-driven career. Book Excerpt >>